


Seeing Stars

by RosieTwiggs



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:04:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3876541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTwiggs/pseuds/RosieTwiggs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity lifted her fist and swung.<br/>She was expecting to make contact.<br/>She just wasn’t expecting the douche to duck first.<br/>A pair of bright blue eyes widened at her in surprise a second before she caught their owner hard in the nose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sarcastic_fina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_fina/gifts).



> Birthday gift for the absolutely incredible Lee. Many happy returns <3

All she had wanted tonight, really - the only thing she had been looking for - was some nice company and good wine.

The company had abandoned her ten minutes ago for a cute redhead (though to be fair, she couldn’t fault Sara the hook-up. She was only in town for three days before she shipped off back to - wherever secret government agents shipped off to.)

The wine…

Well, the wine had been nice until -

“Come on, babe. Let me buy you another drink.”

Felicity didn’t even bother to hide her grimace behind her glass. The guy had ignored every social cue she’d thrown at him up until this point. Her grimace would go completely ignored. She was going to have to use a more direct approach.

“Not really sure what part of ‘No, I don’t want company,’ you didn’t understand,” she said, frowning.

“Not sure why you think you need to be coy with me, cutie.”

Oh. Ew.

Felicity put her glass down and turned to face the creep. He grinned like he was thrilled he had finally gotten her full attention, and Felicity hated herself a little bit for giving it to him.

“Alright, listen closely. Since you’re obviously completely oblivious to the fact that I want you to go away, I’m going to spell it out for you. I don’t want company. Not yours, not anybody’s. I didn’t come here to get hit on. But since a woman telling you ‘no’ is obviously a foreign concept to you, which seems weird, because I can’t imagine anyone telling you ‘yes’, let’s do this instead. You’re gross. I’m not interested. Go away or you’ll be sorry.”

The guy threw his head back, laughing long and hard, and Felicity pressed her lips into a thin line.

“Wow, you are cute when you’re pissed off,” he finally said, shaking his head, and everything in Felicity rankled. She tightened her hands into fists, nails digging into her palms.

“I bet that passion carries over into the bedroom, right?”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe that this conversation is actually a thing that’s happening right now,” she muttered.

“Aww, don’t be that way,” he said, and he reached over and _put his hand on her thigh_.

Felicity froze. “Let go of me,” she said, voice low and clipped.

The guy just moved closer.

Felicity took a deep breath. “Move your hand or I’ll scream.”

“Go ahead,” he said, “I’ll get a preview for what you’ll sound like screaming my name later to-”

Felicity lifted her fist and swung.

She was expecting to make contact.

She just wasn’t expecting the douche to duck first.

A pair of bright blue eyes widened at her in surprise a second before she caught their owner hard in the nose.

~*~

Well.

This was not how Tommy had expected his evening to go.

In all fairness, he’d had worse evenings out.

However, he had just learned that it didn’t matter whether you were getting punched by a pretty girl or by a bouncer - a fist to the nose hurt all the same.

“Oh my God! Oh my  _God_!” The blonde jumped down from her barstool, stepping around the guy who’d been harassing her to rush towards Tommy, hands flailing.

Tommy’s eyes were watering, and he felt something trickle down out of his nose. He pulled his fingers away to see them covered in blood, and immediately tipped his head back.

“Oh God, you’re bleeding, I am so,  _so_ sorry!”

She was a frenzy of agitated energy, just outside of his field of vision. He tried gesturing towards the bartender without dripping blood everywhere on the bar.

“Oh, oh! Um, excuse me, could we get some ice?” she asked, and he felt small hands gently maneuver him into a seat. Small hands that packed a big wallop. A moment later she pressed a cloth napkin into his hands.

He’d almost forgotten how he’d managed to get punched to begin with when -

“Oh, man! Did you see that? She’s some firecracker, huh? Tiny but feisty, just how I like them.” The words were punctuated by a long whistle, and Tommy finally straightened his head, holding the napkin in place, to glare at the asshole who’d made it all happen.

But before he could say a word, the blonde woman had stepped in front of him.

“ _You_  have done enough. Get away from me or I will call the police and have them arrest you for sexual harassment.”

The guy laughed, sharp and loud. “I haven’t done anything you weren’t asking for. No one’s gonna fault me for hitting on a girl dressed like you.”

Tommy couldn’t believe guys like this were allowed out in public. He moved to stand but the blonde woman shot a hand out behind her to stop him.

“Really? That’s not how it happened though, is it? If I remember correctly, I asked you to leave and then you started pawing at me. My friend here,” she glanced over her shoulder and Tommy’s breath caught in his throat - it was the first time he’d gotten a clear view of her face and she was just - wow.

She was arching an eyebrow at him questioningly. “Huh? Oh, Tommy,” he said, though his name came out sounding more like “Tobby” through the bloody nose.

She smiled softly. “Felicity, hi.”

_Felicity_.

“Right, so, Tommy came over to help, and then you punched him.”

“Wait, what? I didn’t punch him, you punched him!”

Felicity took a step to the side and Tommy could see her eyes widen in feigned innocence. “What, me? Like I could hurt a fly? I’m so  _tiny_ ,” she threw out at him with a curl to her lip.

“That’s a fucking lie,” the guy snarled.

“And then you tried to hit me,” she shook her head sadly.

“What?!”

“Yeah,” Felicity sighed and glanced at Tommy.

He tilted his head at her, a grin slowly spreading across his lips. He shrugged. “That was out of line, man,” he said.

The pièce de résistance, though, was the bartender suddenly leaning over the bar, glowering at the guy. “I’m glad I managed to stop him, lady. Can’t believe he tried to hit you like that.”

Veins were standing out in the guy’s neck.

“Oh,” Felicity added, “Did I mention one of my best friends is an ADA and her father is the Captain of the SCPD?”

Eyes bulging, mouth opening and closing several times, he finally managed to speak. “Fuck you, bitch. Didn’t want to sleep with you anyway,” he grabbed his coat. “Enjoy your bag of crazy,” he spat at Tommy as he rushed away.

Part of Tommy really wanted to go after him and show him what he thought about that parting line, but the other part watched Felicity’s shoulders slump, watched the way her fists clenched and then loosened, watched her take a deep breath and shake her head very slightly before squaring her shoulders and turning to face him. And that part of him decided he’d much rather stay just where he was.

Her smile was apologetic, discomfitted. “You’re bleeding again,” she said, wincing and stepping forward.

“Huh?” Tommy looked down at the napkin resting forgotten in his hands. He’d dropped it when he’d thought he might have to step in again, for all the good it had done him the first time. Fresh blood glistened where it had dripped on the starch linen. “Oh!” He pressed it under his nose again and tilted his head back.

“I am so sorry, I am literally never going to stop being sorry about this.”

Tommy chuckled, shaking his head. “Believe me, I have been through so much worse.” He straightened again, holding the napkin in place.

“To be honest? It was completely worth it. I was watching that creep hit on you, and you looked like you had it under control, but then he got his hands on you and I just -” Tommy shrugged. “It was more than worth a fist to the face watching that take-down.”

Felicity bit her lip, and Tommy’s eyes were drawn to the bright red color of her lipstick.

“Honestly, it was worth it just to get to see your face,” he added softly.

“I -what?”

Tommy cleared his throat. “The, uh - the guy was blocking you. I couldn’t see your face when he was being a creep. Not that - “ Tommy waved one hand frantically, “Not that I was coming to help just because I wanted to get a look at you or because I wanted to make a pass at you, oh  _fuck…_ ”

Felicity laughed. She tilted her head, shoulders shaking slightly and  _giggled_ at him, and Tommy was gone. He ducked his head, nodding.

“Yeah, okay, okay. I just don’t want the next punch to be on purpose…” He waggled his eyebrows and she giggled again.

“Okay,” Felicity folded her lips together and then continued, sounding conspicuously nonchalant. “So you were saying? About seeing my face?”

Tommy grinned slowly, Felicity’s flirty smile sparking his own innate playfulness.

“Well…” He drew the word out. “Next thing I knew, you made me see stars.”

Felicity  _snorted_ , and wasn’t that just a kick? “Yeah, I made you see stars. I probably broke your nose.”

“Nah, not broken, just bruised. I’ll have a hell of a black eye, but it’s a good story. And none of it matters, because it stopped hurting the second you turned around and smiled at me.”

Felicity fell silent as her amusement turned into surprise.

“Oh,” she breathed, eyes wide, biting her lip again. “That’s - that’s a terrible line.” The blush dusting across her cheeks belied her words, and was the most charming thing Tommy had ever seen.

“Not a line,” he said, shaking his head. “One hundred percent fact. And look,” he pulled the napkin away. “I’m not even bleeding anymore.”

Felicity stepped closer, so close that she brushed against his knees, propped up on the stool rung. She looked him over, very gravely. Tommy held still under her scrutiny, throat working as he swallowed.

“Well,” she said, voice low, “I guess that’s one good thing.” She took a deep breath and look up at him. She was close enough that he could feel her exhale on his lips, see that she had a couple of freckles on her nose. Tommy gripped the napkin tightly to keep from reaching up and brushing her hair behind her ear. Her eyes were a lighter blue than his own, and really, he hadn’t been lying. The pain in his nose was a distant memory.

“Would you like to - I mean, I live nearby, and you’re kind of a mess,” Felicity looked horrified for a moment, “Not, like, in general, you’re still amazingly good looking, even with all the blood, which isn’t bad, I mean, it’s bad, but not zombie bad or-” she blanched again before taking a deep breath and starting over. “I live near here, and I’d really like to make up for punching you. I have clean clothes, and popcorn, and a full netflix queue, if you’re interested.”

Oh. He was interested. He’d known Felicity for all of five minutes and she was already the most interesting person he’d ever met. And he wanted to know more.

“I’d like that,” he said.

Felicity stepped back to let him get down from the stool, setting a few bills on the bar to cover her tab.

They both grabbed their coats, and then Tommy offered her his arm. Felicity took it, beaming up at him. He knew he looked like a mess, as she’d been kind enough to point out, but he grinned right back, ignoring the twinge in his nose, and together they stepped out into the night.


End file.
